The role of medical informatics in telemedicine

The role of medical informatics in telemedicine is dependent on using the power of the computerized database to not only feed patient specific information to the health care providers, but to use the epidemiological and statistical information in the data base to improve decision making and ultimately care. The computer is also a powerful tool to facilitate standardizing and monitoring of care and when applied in continuous quality improvement methodology it can enhance the improvement process well beyond what can be done by hand. The coupling of medical informatics with telemedicine allows sophisticated medical informatics systems to be applied in low population density and remote areas.